ST canon is inconsistent and contradictory.

I know what you mean about huge ships.
I have a set of deckplans for the Constitution/Starship class, made by the FASA Corporation for their ST roleplaying game.
At 1 inch to 10 feet scale, the plans for the widest saucer deck covers about 2/3rds of the surface of a double bed!

 

Make that Deck 7 - Medical Section, not Deck 16 sick bay
(That’s what I get for not unfolding the blueprint.)

I didn’t hit reply because the quote was already long enough

 

Hi Mike, I wouldn’t mind having a set of those! I’ve always neglected the technical side of ST and focussed on the characters never having studied the layout of the world in which they are interacting.

The plans added 3d perspective as well as some appreciation for how massive these ships are.

Never knew how many transporter rooms and miscellaneous odd transporters they use aboard ship either, or that transporters could be portable =). I want a portable multidimensional transporter!

 

Not quite the same thing as having them in person, but all the plans are available to view here:
https://www.cygnus-x1.net/links/lcars/uss-enterprise-fasa-15mm-deck-plans.php

 

I’m just laying out the old Franz Joseph Botany Section/Crew’s Quarters on the table and doing quick comparisons against the same section on the site from your link. A little different but not much. I don’t know my early 70’s tech that well but I’m guessing they drafted the Joseph’s by hand.

I’m bookmarking the site.

 

Hi Morgan. Yeah these plans (and the D7 ones, also by FASA) certainly give you a sense of the massive size and overall layout of the ship. Before I start a new campaign I always give a "guided tour" of the plans to try to fix the players understanding of the various sections and departments, and trying to engender a feeling of belonging to their ship.
However, they are great plans, but not perfect ones, and so I have customised my copy to try to fix what seemed to me the most obvious (and not too complex to fix) issues.
However they remain the most impressing RPG game props I own.

 

I remember a time when I said the exact same thing. It didn't last.

 

I’m not a gamer, I‘ve avoided gaming because I think I’d like it too much.

But I still need to be able to visualise where these characters work, live, where they are, where they need to go, what might crush them if it fell, and what’s in their way. So I can put them through hell in fanfics. x

 

It’s been two days since I last ‘said’ it, I think. One day at a time!

 

Fanfic and RPG-ing, I think we are more alike than different. Both taking established genre and lore and creating new stories within it.
Oh, and I put my players through hell, too (cue evil laugh).
Just saying..............

 

I started to write something similar, ha.

 

I wonder how much arm twisting it took to convince humans to have the Federation HQ somewhere on Earth besides America.

 

This is speculation because speculation is more fun than googling the answer then serving it up, but the San Francisco UFP location choice is a relic from the days when films were actually filmed on location in the US.

If they’d put a copy of The Voyage Home on the Voyager probe and aliens viewed the film, what do you think their impressions of earth would be?

 

I think @Nyotarules was talking about the in-universe explanation for the locations chosen.

 

Perhaps Starfleet HQ and the Federation presidency being on earth means Earth is a relatively small player, keeping it out of the hand of major power factions, in much the same ways Brussels is the capital of the EU

 

Didn't STFC cement the idea that WW3 ended all the nation states and became one unified whole? Or Space Seed?

Besides, the reason Starfleet was in America was for the same reason all the countries of the world handed their nuke codes to Great Britain:

BRIGADIER: A few months ago, the superpowers, Russia, America and China, decided upon a plan to ensure peace. All three powers have hidden atomic missile sites. All three agreed to give details of those sites plus full operational instructions to another neutral country. In the event of trouble, that country could publish everyone's secrets and so cool things down. Well, naturally enough, the only country that could be trusted with such a role was Great Britain.

DOCTOR: Well, naturally, I mean, the rest were all foreigners.​

Same base concept applies well enough for Trekville but let's tweak it for fun:

Supreme Commander: A few months ago, the Federated planets, decided upon a plan to ensure peace. All planets' powers have hidden weapons-of-big-boom-boom sites. All agreed to give details of those sites plus full operational instructions to another neutral country - me. In the event of trouble, that planet could publish everyone's secrets over subspace techbobabble and so cool things down quick enough. Well, naturally enough, the only planet that could be trusted with such a role was Earth, because they'd been through it far more often than everyone else.

Kerr Avon: Well, naturally, I mean, the others are all foreigners and humans make these shows for humans and not Alpha Omnivores because they may or may not exist in the same relative timeframe as we do and likely couldn't care less anyhow any more than they make shows about their collective species that has a baddie called "Homanahomanaoids".
​

Oh wait, wrong franchise. That's okay as both have Federations so obviously it's all the same franchise.

 

No. Earth did not become united until the year 2150, a year prior to the start of Enterprise (the series). Prior to that, nation states continued to exist independently, with many fans believing Australia needed extra convincing to join United Earth, based on Dr. Crusher's line from TNG Attached. Also, from Enterprise we know that in Britain the Royal Navy continued to exist as recently as Malcolm Reed's lifetime, given he went against the family tradition of joining the Royal Navy and joined Starfleet instead.